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The 300,000 sq ft plant now employs 130 people, and Siemens said it expects that number to triple when the factory is fully operational.

The first nacelles to be produced at the facility will be 2.3MW units for Puget Sound Energy’s 343MW Lower Snake River project in Washington State.

CEO Eric Spiegel said: "The U.S. is one of the most important wind power markets in the world and by opening our first nacelle assembly facility in the U.S., we are closer to our customers, allowing us to better meet the strong demand for clean energy right where it's used."

Dutch cable manufacturer Draka recently announced it will open a Hutchinson assembly plant to capitalise on Siemens’s presence there.

Siemens’s other US operations include a 600,000 sq ft blade factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, two gearbox factories in Elgin, Illinois, a service centre in Houston and an R&D facility in Boulder, Colorado.

Last week Siemens announced that it will open a blade factory in Tillsonburg, Ontario. In the same week the company opened a 580,000 sq ft blade factory in Shanghai.